Three Month Serenade
by Evening.moon
Summary: Sakura Haruno was familiar with death. She had lost many of her beloved to it. Now, she was losing herself. :.:SakuraXSasuke


**AN. Disclaimer applied? Check.**

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**-**-**-Three Months-**-**-**

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**_Dedicated to:_ **Everlasting crimson _my newbie/unofficial BETA_

**Chapter 1**

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_Life is like a dream, sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad, but in the end it is over._

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Sakura Haruno didn't know what to think…in fact she couldn't think. This wasn't possible. She wasn't supposed to be the one on death's door. As a medic-nin, she was used to telling people and their families about bad news. Immediate death…amputation…disabilities...They were bad..but there was one thing Sakura hated more than all the others, and that was telling someone that they had a limited time to live. It was the fact knowing that you would have to say goodbye forever to the people you love that hurt the most.

Usually, Sakura would be the one telling this to people but today…she was on the receiving end.

"How long?" she breathed out nearly choking on her words when she said them. She felt them constrict around her throat and tightly grasp her heart.

Tsunade's concerned hazel eyes scrutinized her apprentice. The usually bright and bubbly pink haired girl was seated infront of her, unmoving (except for her upper teeth, which were working hard chewing her bottom lip off) since Tsunade broke the news to her. Unmoving…like the dead. Death…it was the thing that Tsunade hated the most. To even think that her beloved apprentice would soon join Dan and Jiraiya on the other side… Tsunade shook her head vehemently, trying to rid the tears that threatened to spring from her eyes. NO. That WON'T happen. We will find a cure.._if possible_),the little voice inside that she had tried so hard to suppress added without sympathy.

"Sakura, we'll find an antidote, don't worry." Tsuande said but her words sounded weak to even her own ears.

Sakura looked up, unshed tears still remaining in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away and put a brave mask on. She shouldn't be the one with all this pain. Tsunade frowned.

"But, how long?" Sakura asked again. Tsunade was stalling and she knew it. She _wanted_ to know..or did she...? Sakura shook her head at the contradicting thought, _of course_ she wanted to know. She wanted to prepare herself. But in her heart, she knew she was lying to herself and she was in truth hoping that Tsunade wouldn't tell her.

"Three months give or take. Luckily, the poison doesn't have many symptoms though it may be a bit painful, so it won't effect your normal life." Tsuande replied with a sigh. She really didn't want to be the one to give the bad news.

There was a sudden unworldly silence. Even the usually noisy Konoha streets seemed much quieter than usual, as if sympathising with the rosette.

"Sakura, we'll find an antidote." Tsunade repeated interrupting the silence.

"Hai, shishou, I know you will, I'll..I'll just be going now," Sakura said quickly as she looked up with an obviously forced smile. Noone could smile wholeheartedly when they know they're going to die.

"Do you want me to tell Team 7 for you?"

"NO…No..I think..I'll tell them myself," Sakura stuttered and she turned quickly almost tripping over her own feet and falling smack bang onto the door on her way out. What she did not realise was that the entire conversation had been heard by the owner of a gravity-defying puff of grey hair standing silently outside the door listening to every word they said . He had then left though, as to not become suspicious but to understand everything in the conversation.

"Ok, take this week off then, Shizune will cover for you," she called as Sakura bolted out of the room. Tsunade sighed and quickly gulped down the rest of her sake.

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Sakura had just stepped(more like ninja-sprinted) out of the doors of the Hokage Tower when she bumped nose first into a jounin vest covered chest. She inwardly swore for being so short and looked up to see one half of a masked face. Kakashi's lone eye scanned her face from the slightly red eyes to the fact that she was still biting her lip and was bleeding slightly. She stepped backwards more of instinct then her ex-sensei's intimidating gaze. For some reason she felt nervous..maybe because of the conversation before with Tsuande or perhaps it was the fact that Kakashi looked like he knew everything..absolutely _everything_. So she did what came naturally to her...she ranted...and that was a big no-no when you're trying to hide something.

"Hey sensei. Urr...what are you doing here. I'm here because...urr...you know, how Tsuande-shishou can drink ten bottles of sake in a go and Shizune isn't here so I thought I might keep an eye on shishou and umm..well..turns out she's doing her paperwork and I know that's absolutely amazing and I just..umm..," Sakura mentally smacked herself on the head for being so obvious.

"Sakura. That's the worst load of bull I've ever heard from you,"

"Uhh...I'll try harder next time?" Sakura gave her sensei a questioning smile and rubbed her head.

"Haha. Hilarious. Save your jokes for later cause I want to know what happened,"

Sakura gulped, she could tell that Kakashi was serious and when he was serious even thinking about escaping wasn't possible anymore.

"Now?" Sakura asked trying to inch away from the lone eye. Pftt..the guy doesn't need Sharingan, he can just glare at something with his normal eye and it'll turn into a pile of squished banana goo.

"Now." Sakura knew that this time he wasn't asking, he was demanding and she could never win against him in this state. Grudgingly, she slowly followed her sensei scuffling on the dusty dirt road and bringing up dust into the air of the unnaturally humid Summer afternoon.

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_He who can, does. He who can't, teaches._

_Kakashi's life was a tragedy on tape, so now he's taking all the mistakes that he had made in the past and using it to make sure his team doesn't make the same mistakes. Kakashi can't go back in time to change his past but he can teach his students to change the future._

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They had reached the affectionately and most _originally_ dubbed 'Team 7 Bridge'. Kakashi turned to face Sakura who had situated herself on top of the first railing on the sides on the bridge. He gave her a look and she sighed dramatically before starting her recount.

**_Flashback_**

_Sakura jumped from tree to tree with __the stealth she had trained years for to obtain._ She had just finished her first solo S-rank reconnaissance mission and was going back to Tsunade with some very interesting information about Akatsuki. She could feel the lactic acid in her calf muscles but only pushed herself faster.

_It was not only the fact that she wanted to get out of her sticky ANBU uniform and have a hot bath but rather __the fact that she felt_ Tsunade needed this information as soon as possible… even though she was looking forward to the bath. Sakura shook her head to clear the thoughts about hot water and sleep, she was in Mist territory. She had to be on her guard. Suddenly she tensed; her instincts told her that someone was watching her. She closed her eyes and felt the chakras in her surrounding, trees, trees, more trees and then there_! Two chakras flickered and died out, making Sakura smirk inwardly. Seems like the stalkers had masked their chakra a tad too late. What happened next however, truly surprised her; the two masked chakras suddenly unmasked themselves as if telling her to go after them. _

_Sakura frowned, "either these two people were really smart or really dumb", thought Sakura, hoping for the latter. The two chakras then started moving toward her at a rapid pace. Knowing she couldn't outrun them, Sakura stood her ground. But then, the two chakras stopped 100 metres from where she was standing. Sakura furrowed her brow in frustration…something was very fishy about these two…she could faintly recognize the two from somewhere..somewhere. Then it hit her, Kisame from Akatsuki and the unknown with a mask..hmm.. so that's what was 'fishy'._

_She mentally ran through the options she had. She was almost out of chakra from the previous mission so it was a short list; to run or to die. She made up her mind quite quickly and was about to head off when she heard two sets of feet dropping lightly on the ground. She inwardly cursed her bad luck; there was no way she could run now __so instead she settled to turn and glare_ at the two missing-nin instead. She tightened her fists resolving to bleed profusely on their cloaks and hopefully ruin them, bloodstains were pretty hard to get rid of. She threw a dozen kunai to the 'unknown' who dodged gracefully but didn't see the chakra strings tied to them. Sakura tilted her wrist and two of them embedded themselves into his upper thigh.

_"So I guess not all Akatsuki members are so good, I think it may be the purple nail polish, fumes that mess with your brain." Sakura smiled gloating inwardly that she had hit an Akatsuki._

_Kisame raised an eyebrow at Sakura's witty comment, whereas his partner just shrugged._

_"Oh well…lovely scar to show the grandchildren eh Tobi?" Kisame smiled showing both rows of his sharp carnivorous teeth._

_"Ten centimeters to the right and grandchildren would have been out of the question," Sakura muttered._

_"Oooh, sharp tongue kunoichi, but you'd better put it away, don't want to cut yourself."_

_"Thanks for the advice, but I've got to say, your teeth are just as sharp, might want to pull them out - don't want to bite yourself."_

_Kisame grinned, "this was some interesting prey" he thought. Most of them just begged to be set free and started wetting their pants in fear, but this pinky had a backbone and he liked prey that struggled - it made it so much more fun to kill. He had just reached for his Samehade when Tobi put one hand out to stop him. He frowned but knew that he had to listen to his leader. He remembered what Tobi had said when they were watching her…"I want her to die slowly, painfully, she's been a foil to my plans and I want her to suffer." Kisame shrugged, he could go hunt some other prey later._

_Sakura shivered when she looked at the guy named Tobi. __H__e seemed to be__ even more__ dangerous __than Kisame__and so__ when he turned around to __stare at her__, she felt her heart sink to her stomach. "Oh shit," she thought to herself. He casually lifted his mask up and she froze..literally...__W__hen she met his eyes, they __looked straight into __twin Sharingans. She could __already __feel herself falling into unconsciousness __despite her struggles__. _

_All she could remember was the twin orbs spinning when she woke up. There was no sign of either Akatsuki but after searching her body she found a needle puncture on her upper arm and a foreign substance in her body. The moment she made it to Konoha, she went to Tsunade and told her the reconnaissance information, about her 'meeting' with the Akatsuki and the poison._

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"So that's it. I think you could link Tsuande's words and my story together, a simple two piece jigsaw eh sensei?" Sakura looked down feeling her throat tighten again.

"You should have told me," Kakashi whispered. He was shocked, he had no idea and now his pupil was going to die?

"Totally, Kakashi like what? Hey sensei, guess what? These two wierdos from Akatsuki injected some sort of poison into me and I only have three months to live but I'm fine so see you..really Kakashi would you do that?" Sakura could feel her voice wavering and tears brimming.

Kakashi looked down, he had noticed the lack of 'sensei' when she said his name. Did she really not trust him or was she right…would he have really understood?. He admitted the fact that he had been a total jackass to her when he was still her sensei. He had seen Naruto and Sasuke's potential but not hers...he had abandoned her and now he expected her to tell her up-most secrets to him. She had probably thought that he wouldn't care even if she told him. He couldn't blame her. If only he could change the past...Obito...what would you do?

As if Sakura had read Kakashi's mind, she looked up and put on a small but genuine smile.

"It's not your fault Kakashi-sensei. Anyways, what's in the past is in the past so let's look towards the future ne?. Oh..and just to let you know, I forgive you. I have a _ramen date_ with Naruto and Sasuke, and unlike a certain _someone_ I know, I can't be late for everything, so see you" Sakura gave him another smile then hopped down from the bridge and walked away towards Ichiraku.

Kakashi stared at the girl..no..woman and shook his head. He was getting too old for all this drama.

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"And I was like 'take that man'and he was like 'noooo, don't kill me almighty warrior' and I was like 'youre going down' , dattebayo," Naruto finished off with his trademark grin. Both he and Sasuke were heading off towards their daily Ichiraku 'Team 7 get together' or as Sakura calls it 'just a way to let Sasuke pay for his meal excuse', when Naruto started telling the stoic Uchiha about his last mission beating the _oh-so-tough_ Sound Rouge-nins into something that looked like a banana which had been run over by a 100 tonne semitrailer.

"Dobe," Sasuke frowned when he heard Naruto start his 'story', not cause he disliked the 'stroyteller' but because he hadn't been allowed to go on a mission for 3 months after getting major injuries that had confined him to one of the hospital's detergent smelling rooms.

"Who are you calling dobe, teme! I can beat you single handed dattebayo!"

"Dobe, you get smashed by Sakura, how are you supposed to beat me,"

"Oooh, did you just say Sakura-chan is weak. Let me tell you, she's strong, with all that freaky super-human strength she learnt from obaa-chan, she can smash you with one pinky, dattebayo!" Naruto grinned madly when he spotted a blur of pink in the crowd.

"Sakura-chan, over here!" Nauro shouted with such a volume that it almost shattered Sasuke's ninja-sensitive eardums.

Sakura had no trouble hearing the shout...more like blast from the blonde. She followed the direction of the voice and found the previously mentioned blonde crazily waving his hands in the air towards her. She scoffed, how could she not be able to see him, heck Gaara probably could.

She dived into the crowd of people and _skillfully_ and _oh-so elegantly_ tripped and pushed her way to the two. She emerged through the sea of people looking a little worse for wear, with suspicious red, puffy eyes.

"What's with your eyes, Sakura," Sasuke mumbled as per usual, poker face on.

"Oh. my eyes? ohh, my eyes..umm I didn't sleep last night with all those shifts at the hospital,you know, Sasuke..."

"Really?" Sasuke asked skeptically. His ninja senses told him that she was hiding something or was that just his affections for …?. Both sat down next to Naruto on the stools at Ichiraku and Sakura looked away biting her lip, she sucked at lying.

Luckily she was saved when Teuchi-ojii-san at Ichiraku asked for her order and Sasuke seeing her hesitance didn't enquire anymore. Throughout the whole of lunch at Ichiraku, she for once couldn't concentrate on anything her teammates were saying (or lack of for Sasuke), instead she sank deep in thought about what Kakashi had said to her earlier. _"You should have told me." _That sentence was haunting her and was making her feel guilty that she wasn't telling the people she trusted anything. She looked at Naruto inhaling his tenth bowl and the quiet Uchiha next to her and another wave of guilt came upon her.

_"You should tell them," _Sakura's subconscious whispered to her.

"But what if they reject me, what if they don't care?" Sakura didn't realise she had said her thought outloud until two heads spun in her direction, questioning looks pining her down.

"_Oh shit, great going Sakura, just spill it all out why don't you. Oh wait, you already have."_ Sakura's subconscious tended to be the best comforter in the world. Sakura inwardly punched herself at her stupidity.

"Care about what, Sakura-chan?" Naruto looked worried and even though he may never admit it, Sasuke was too.

"Urmm..guys..there's something that I need to tell you..." Sakura started off in a very 'Hinata' pose and then she took a deep breath and looked into Naruto and Sasuke's eyes. She had made up her mind.

"Something happened to me and I think you really need to know." Sakura looked on with steady, determined eyes.

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**Author's Note: Make sure to press that '_Review'_ Button and write a line or two, it makes me feel all warm when people bother to _review_ so please make my day and _review_. Criticism welcomed.**

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